These were the dates added at the end of the tour to make up for playing the Empire Pool - and because they could. It's just called the "Lyceum Theater" (not the Strand Lyceum). There's a nearly 2hr first set. The 2500-seater changed the band vibe, and this is pretty laid back compared to the week before, and without the crazy energy of, say, Denmark. The first show of the run is the lesser; but still very good.
First Set. Starts average but the Mr. Charlie is one of the classic versions. Pig pwns the first set and the next ace version is Next Time You See Me (though Jed is great). The rest is nearly perfect. Bobby says he may blank out and sing Garcia's part for Jack Straw - they had just changed the arrangement. Listen to what Jer plays under the verses. There's definitely some Donnaskreech™ in Playing but it's much tighter in a theater and Billy's great. Apparently it was Pig that played the güiro in these early 72s, after Mickey left. The next-to-the-last Sittin' is followed by Rockin' Pneumonia. It's the 1st one of 4 ever (Milwaukee is best). Johnny Rivers would release the hit version in a few months - the Dead must've known the Huey Smith version. Mexicali is bouncy, fast, a little different than the rest that month.
Second Set. The set starts a bit static. Then Dark Star wanders all over the place without going anywhere very interesting compared to other 72s (or even this tour). It's the last couple minutes of Morning Dew where things come alive again. Sugar Magnolia was played almost every night, but this is top 5 - even downtempo and with some Bobby croaks. Comes a Time is perfunctory but it's a whoppin' Goin' Down teh Road (the end section is on Steppin' Out) into an A+ Not Fade Away. Hey Bo Diddley is the 1st of 4 and was played because they had just backed Bo Diddley in March, when he opened for them (where they had played "Bo Diddley", which is a different song). They lose the tightness again for Uncle John's (why is this stuck on the top of CD4 on Steppin'?).
1st Set:   A-
2nd Set: C+
Overall = 4 Stars
Highlights:
Mr. Charlie - the version on E72. Bobby teases a fire marshall, Pig teases fire from the boys
Next Time You See Me - Pig on top of his game
Jack Straw - witness it coming together; brilliantly
China Cat>Rider - a relaxed, thick groove>incredible and not the same as others this month
Me & My Uncle - such a snarling, perfect version
Chinatown Shuffle - Keith in the rag (time)
Two Souls in Communion - while I doubt this has many fans, this is the one you want
Playing in the Band - Jer discovers he has great sustain in this house and uses it
Mexicali Blues - a bouncy fast version that's a little different than the rest that month
Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad - there are many good ones in '72 but this is a tour classic
Not Fade Away - an A+ version
SOURCES: The unknown.16089 seems as least as good of a transfer as the rest - all from the same source. Mr. Charlie was on the original Europe '72 and nine songs are on Steppin' Out (actually 9½, since the ending of Goin' Down the Road is patched from this show).

Dang how much was that? I dont remember.

Yup that's right Jerry Garcia is playing organ on Good Lovin. Pig on keys and Jer on organ!! Man you gotta love the jam here. Absolutely the coolest! Great sound here to say the least. I'm freakin out!!!

If you have ever had the pleasure of reading or looking through is probably more precise,the dead Illustrated Trip with foreward by Robert Hunter(HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) it goes into great detail how Blue Ron as he was known by his black brother's in East Palo Alto actually recommended the Dead go from a jugband, bluegrass type format into a Rock and Roll band(after listening to the Rolling Stones 1st album), Ron said 'HEY WE CAN DO STUFF LIKE THIS". Also every member to a tee of the Dead said it was Pigpen who was their inspiration and was the 'GUY' who always brought them back to where they needed to be at that particular time, he was in fact a brother/father figure type to all of them and he was highly missed. The shows from 1969(check out the ARK run of 3 shows in Boston) I think Pig was at his peak in this time, beautiful voice and kept the band "earthed" so to speak. The Europe 72 tour was really the last of Pigs prowess in the band and his light still shines in the 72 tour but unfortunately was dimming quite rapidly until march of 73 when the world lost a great human being and musician. My wife does not understand Pig(does'nt like and I hope she reads the 5 pages that are dedicated to Ron McKernan,awesome stuff, go get the book it's worth is really priceless, its a timeline from 1940 to 2003 and it is very interesting from a perspective of the band and the development of the beatnicks that centered in Palo Alto and where most of the Dead met and learned about life .Pretty cool stuff. Peace and thanks to the Archives, downloading my 300th or show as I write this now and will have this beutiful music to listen to until I meet "Jehovah's favorite choir" one day. Hey to all my buddies from DC and very fond memories with all of you from 1979-1988 when I moved to Florida, if you are reading this and want to say High email me at james.steve11@yahoo.com

This show shall soon be purged from the archives and so i feel very blessed to have been able to stream it before it is removed.
Hissy from tape and generation but it still shines through. Over the course of the presentation the inherent tape hiss lessens and it becomes a rather sonically enjoyable recording.
Right from the inception Jerry and the Boys are exploratory in nature as the muse swings them from turn to turn like walking across an expansion bridge suspended high above the Upper Ganges.
Blue Ron (Pigpen) had diligently tried to perfect his Hammond organ sound and after much criticism from the band that he had held them back he agreed to get lessons. He tried his best to fit in with the evolving sound but quickly recognized he was clearly passe'
Here, he gives it his all, as ever he did. It falls short, sadly. He gracefully canceled himself out so that they might move onward.
Frankly, from the moment of its initial inflection, the tears are rolling...hearing this.
If you can appreciate Blue Ron and what he did to bring about the entity which we now admire as the Grateful Dead. It was all his idea and his idea literally carried the band in its first two critical years of existence. Few of us know of him as one of the most recognizable figures on the planet earth in 1967. Time Magazine would corroborate. He was number 5.
God bless Blue Ron. We shall never fully appreciate his vision and his commitment into bringing this kind of music to new generations of jam band music lovers.
You who love jam band music owe your allegiance to Pigpen's vision. He saw beyond the years. He didn't know it ~ he felt it. It oozed from every cell of his being.
Of particular note: listen to Sitting On Top of the World and wonder why they dropped this song from their repertoire. It smokes!
Then they do Rocking Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu !! OMG !!
When they do the Ramble On Rose to start the second set you can sense that they are just so on and full of themselves that should radiate such an elegant and expansive Dark Star to emanate from what bespeaks the absolute assuredness of this lasting as an alltime keeper show.
And what follows builds and underlines perhaps what could be considered the unsung hero of this European tour. Forgive me ~ mere speculation.
Have to rate this a 25 out of 5 stars merely for the enthusiastic and action-charged performance.
This here is Good Ol' Grateful Dead at its good ol' gratefully deadist.

This might be the most overrated show of the tour. That said, it's still a phenomenal performance, much of it available in vault remastered sound quality. The number of songs included on Steppin' Out is a testiment to how well played it is. Although, one could also speculate that perhaps superior performances such as in Rotterdam, Copenhagen and Paris might be being reserved for future official release in their entirety? Regardless, it's a very strong show, particularly for Pigpen who shines brightly on Two Souls in Communion. The set list is one of the most interesting of the tour, including a few rare numbers like Sitting On Top of the World, Rockin' Pneumonia and Hey Bo Diddlley. Several songs such as Comes a Time and Uncle Johns Band are candidates for best of the tour .
Obviously cogniscant of how powerful the combination was, the band reprises Dark Star> Morning Dew from the previous performance in Munich. In fact they almost can't wait, breaking it out early in the second set. This thirty minute Dark Star goes a bit further, though. And while it doesnt quite reach the dizzying heights achieved on 4/8, 4/24 or 5/11, it is certainly an exceptional performance. Perhaps not quite as cohesive as those versions, but surely not lacking in intensity. Jazzy, almost from the opening notes, the initial intro theme jam is punchy and upbeat. Another interesting passage developes at 8:00, with Jerry bending and sustaining his notes with Phil rumbling. After a brief drum segment there is another jazzy passage, this time its Weir and Garcia getting together before the verse. A wild space follows before a sublime transition into Morning Dew.
Again Morning Dew is an extremely powerful performance, superbly played, perhaps superior even to the 5/26 version immortalized on Europe '72, and eclipsed only by the extraordinarily emotive rendition from the prior performance in Munich. The show closing GDTRFB> NFA including a rocking Hey Bo Diddley is likely the top performance of this suite on the tour. (97 pts)

Since this is beyond question one of the best Dark Stars out there, it's a great pleasure to be the first reviewer of what is, at the time of this writing, the only available recording of this show.
I have written at least two others reviews of this performance before and posted them to the Archive, apparently deleted ... this one I will try to save.
Right off the top of my head: the version of Two Souls here is also the quintessential version. RIP Pigpen.
Back to the Star: this is one of the handful that should be transcribed to sheet music as not a minute goes by before the band is launching into another space and obliterating it, the moving on. Pig picks up the maraccas and by 6 minutes in he is driving the band. By 8 minutes every other member of the band is grabbing at the wheel and they take it off Highway 1 in slow motion, devilslidealltheway floating on bill's toms ... no "other" digressions here ... at 14 minutes Jerry and Bobby float in as a single azure-feathered entity and slap some organic crystal paint on the freshly pupated butterfly, quivering with each drop of golden blood rushing into the starved veins of its infinitely expanding brown wings. By 18 minutes the Pig is there with his organ. By 20 minutes, the Pig has vanished and the scent of mushrooms blooming over the decaying fruit of tomorrow's boring orgasm beings to overpower. Four minutes later you take your father's picture from the ancient gallery and fuck its mouth until your brother grabs you and says "Dude - what are you doing??!?!!??" You slowly unclench your fists and look and after a three or four days you open your eyes and look around and you have just finished giving your most beautiful lover a nipple orgasm and the sun is shininig and you have eternity before you and you are exactly where you have always wanted to be at this moment in time, and time has stopped.
And I guess it doesn't matter ... anyway.